As healthcare systems across Europe accelerate their digital transformation, the need for open, data-driven platforms is becoming increasingly clear. Major national initiatives such as eKarton and new digital health legislation in Slovenia and the growing momentum behind the data availability agenda in the Netherlands are just a few of them.
In this interview, our Business Development Director Anže Droljc reflects on the key developments shaping the Slovenian and Dutch markets and explains how these shifts are accelerating the move towards open, data-driven healthcare ecosystems. He also shares how Better is supporting this transition through its digital health platform, enabling healthcare organisations to unlock the value of structured clinical data, support AI innovation, and build more connected models of care.
Reflecting on 2025, what have been the most valuable learnings or turning points for your market, and how have they shaped your strategy going forward?
In Slovenia there are 3 main drivers of changes:
1) Big national tenders to which Better also responded: eKarton, National drug dictionary, and eTTL,
2) Slovenia just confirmed a new legislation addressing the digitalisation in healthcare, and
3) The frustration of healthcare providers with their existing state of digital tools and their growing ambition to be able to introduce more modern digitial solutions.
Better is in a good position to use these three drivers to extend our solutions in Slovenia also through partners and no longer just direct. With the new legislation for digital healthcare, Slovenia will get stable funding for new projects which will be built on the same concepts as eKarton and on top of the eHealth backbone, where Better is the main technology provider. Combining that with the ambition on medical teams to get more modern solutions the focus in Slovenia will finally switch from buying only admin and billing solutions to modern clinical applications with the requirement that these run within a Slovenian ecosystem powered by Better Platform.
In the Netherlands, there is :
1) the Dutch data availability agenda, which argues that data needs to be stored separately from the applications to reduce vendor lock-in, speed up innovation and ensure that data is stored for the lifetime of the patient.
2) National ACP (Advance care planning) coalition is defining a national information standard and a blueprint for ACP solutions, and Better is part of this coalition.
3) Better just signed a regional project with RSO South Limburg, where we will deliver Better Platform as a foundation for the region to build their regional digital health ecosystem based on openEHR CDR and Better’s ACP solution. We will use this as a lighthouse account to demonstrate the benefits of openEHR and Better digital health platform in achieving a data availability agenda.
How do you see healthcare organisations evolving in terms of data maturity and openness, and where do you think Better can make the greatest difference?
Healthcare organisations are increasingly aware of the importance of storing patient data in a structured and vendor-neutral format, making it accessible across all levels of care and to different IT solutions. However, healthcare organisations often lack the experience or understanding of how a data and platform-driven ecosystem can be set up and governed in an efficient way. And this is an opportunity for Better because we don’t just have the innovative and scalable Digital Health Platform, but with all the latest successful hospital, national and regional implementations we now have the knowledge and know-how on how to transform healthcare organisations in a predictable and low-risk way. And this is crucial to getting buy-in from board-level decision-makers as well.
Looking ahead, what emerging technologies or healthcare trends do you believe will define 2026, and how is Better positioned to respond to them?
When it comes to technology, we cannot ignore AI. The main healthcare trend will remain around implementing a more patient-centred care, which starts already with wellness and wellbeing, prevention and continues with chronic care management and more connected care at the regional and national level. For both trends, having quality and structured data will be key. Better Platform with new planned upgrades will be able to support the different AI projects and solutions, and with our existing product and solution portfolio, we are already ahead of the competition when it comes to offering regional solutions for a more connected care.
What are your priorities and aspirations for the coming year, and how will they help shape the future of digital healthcare?
Use the new projects in Slovenia and the Netherlands as lighthouse accounts and an opportunity to build a knowledge base, benefit cases and blueprints so that it becomes easier for other healthcare providers and partners to implement similar concepts and solutions. Digital healthcare needs to move towards data-driven and connected ecosystems where not only data but also workflows are separated from the applications to support new regional models of care. And these ecosystems need to be able to support the needs of medical teams and citizens to have a single and up-to-date patient record that can be used for decision-making at the point of care, but also for different scenarios of secondary uses of data.
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